Joseph and the Famine

The famine became worse and worse, so that all the land of Egypt and Canaan were starving. Joseph collected all the money in Egypt and Canaan in exchange for grain, and he brought they money to Pharaoh's treasure-houses. When the people were out of money, they came to Joseph crying again for food.

"Our money is gone," they said, "but give us bread; for why should we die?"

"Well then," Joseph replied, "give me your livestock. I will trade you food in exchange."

So they brought their cattle to Joseph in exchange for food. Soon all the horses, flocks, herds, and donkeys of Egypt were in Pharaoh's possession.

The next year they came again and said, "Our money is gone, and our cattle are yours, and there is nothing left but our bodies and land. Why should we die? Buy us and our land and we will be serfs to Pharaoh. We will trade ourselves for food, then we will live, and the land won't be abandoned."

So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh; all the Egyptians sold him their fields because the famine was so severe. And the land became Pharaoh's. Thus all the people of Egypt became Pharaoh's serfs. The only land he didn't buy was that belonging to the priests, for they were assigned food from Pharaoh and didn't need to sell.

Then Joseph said to the people, "See, I have bought you and your land for Pharaoh. Here is grain. Go and sow the land. And when you harvest it, a fifth of everything you get belongs to Pharaoh. Keep four parts for yourselves to be used for next year's seed, and as food for yourselves and for your households and little ones."

"You have saved our lives," they said. "We will gladly be the serfs of Pharaoh."

So Joseph made it a law throughout the land of Egypt--and it is still the law--that Pharaoh should have as his tax twenty percent of all the crops except those produced on the land owned by the temples.

So Israel lived in the land of Goshen in Egypt, and soon the people of Israel began to prosper, and there was a veritable population explosion among them. Jacob lived seventeen years after his arrival, so that he was 147 years old at the time of his death. As the time drew near for him to die, he called for his son Joseph and said to him, "Swear to me most solemnly that you will honor this, my last request: do not bury me in Egypt. But when I am dead, take me out of Egypt and bury me beside my ancestors." And Joseph promised. "Swear that you will do it," Jacob insisted. And Joseph did. Soon afterwards Jacob took to his bed.

Manasseh and Ephraim »

TEXT SOURCE: (Genesis 47:13-31) The Children's Living Bible, ©1970 Tyndale House Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187
TITLE SOURCE: The New Student Bible, ©1992 Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids Michigan 49530